Listen I dislike Mr Limbaugh as much as the next personwho has a brain and maybe he was visiting prostitutes, but in defense of the DR, just perhaps there was another reason he went. I don't know. Good food? Beautiful beaches? Decent rum? Maybe he likes to dance the merengue or the compa.

Isn't it a bit, I don't know, racist to presume that the only reason someone from the US would go to the DR is for the sex trade?

Aren't gross racist stereotypes supposed to be the territory of the Limbaughs of this world?

While we are all rightfully bashing the ESPN/ABC coverage, I should say that the one aspect I do enjoy is Julie Foudy.

Maybe it's just that she's a different voice. Maybe she just compares favorably to the annoying Eric Wynalda. Maybe I am unconsciously biased because I'm a sucker for a woman with a great pair of legs, but I enjoy watching her.

I think she strikes a nice balance between drawing on her own experience and just informing the viewer about the game.

By the way, to see said legs:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/swimsuit/collection/issues/1999/99_jfoudy_01.html

For some reason, Setanta sports -- which specializes in rugby, GAA, aussie rules, etc -- has been showing the German language feed all world cup.

If people are looking for something less exciting than Dave O'Brien, try the German announcers. It is not just that I don't speak German, they just mumble. On the upside, they don't mumble much, so you do get a lot of ambient sound.

The hockey radio and television broadcasts in Buffalo use the same audio feed and the effect is very similar to watching the Univision coverage of soccer. Even if nothing much is happening, a good play by play describing the inaction makes it seem more dramatic.

The Simpsons, of course, captured this (and America's relationship to soccer) pretty well, when soccer same to Springfield.

See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TTMDyJeqMo&search=simpsons%20soccer%20riot

Groundskeeper Willy: "Ach. They call this a soccer riot? Come on, boys, let's take 'em to school!"

First let me say that I love and follow soccer. I like the premiershp more than Serie A, in part, because it seems like there is less diving. I always feel that diving is both dishonest and in many ways unmanly. I understand that what I intuitively feel is "dishonest" is considered gamesmanship by most soccer fans around the world.

As to the second issue, unmanliness, this is even more irrational. As soon as Italy stole that game from Australia, I fired off a group email to friends in Rome and derided the entire nation as a country of eunuchs and unsportsmanlike eunuchs at that. I vowed to cheer against Italy from this point forward.

But the funny thing is, one of the things that makes women's soccer more pleasurable to watch -- aside from the fact that the US is usually the favorite -- is that there is almost no diving compared to the men's game.

So "unmanly" is particularly inappropriate. what we need is for the men to be more womanly and stop acting like there's a sniper in the stands every time the touch an opposing player.

My kids listen to a pretty wide range of music, which is nonetheless still mostly our music. I have never let Barney or Raffi in the house, but Laurie Berkner is pretty cool and she sure can write a hook.

Some parents have put up most of the chords and tabs of her music online and my kids love to sing along while I play the songs on guitar, not all of which are simple by the way. One of the nicest things about Jack's Big Music show is it shows music being made, not just consumed.

It's nice for the kids to have some music which is "theirs" as opposed to "ours".

Plus, when they walk around singing "Under a shady tree, you and me..." my mother is less shocked than when my four year old started channeling Bunny Wailer and started singing "sick and tired of the bullshit games, die and go to heaven in Jesus's name..." on the way out of mass with her grandparents.

She and her brother have an uncanny knack for picking out the most inappropriate lines to sing outside the house. It's always "Driving that train, high on cocaine" and never "come, hear, Uncle John's band," always "ahhhh, push it. ahhhh push it, ooo baby baby ooo baby baby" and never "Make a little birdhouse in your soul".

It's murphy's law of children singing.

My kids listen to a pretty wide range of music, which is nonetheless still mostly our music. I have never let Barney or Raffi in the house, but Laurie Berkner is pretty cool and she sure can write a hook.

Some parents have put up most of the chords and tabs of her music online and my kids love to sing along while I play the songs on guitar, not all of which are simple by the way.

It's nice for the kids to have some music which is "theirs" as opposed to "ours".

Plus, when they walk around singing "Under a shady tree, you and me..." my mother is less shocked than when my four year old started channeling Bunny Wailer and started singing "sick and tired of the bullshit games, die and go to heaven in Jesus's name..." on the way out of mass with her grandparents.